does anyone of you know about a small USB-C headphone dongle whose manufacturer offers dedicated ASIO drivers? I want to use Dorico while on the go on my Surface Pro 9, which does not have a headphone jack (just like more and more of today’s laptops and especially desktop OS tablets). The Generic Low Latency ASIO Driver does not work well with the 10€ USB-C to 3.5mm adapter I am using at the moment, and ASIO4ALL won’t work at all. (Curiously, ASIO4ALL works quite well with my Valco VMK20 connected via Bluetooth(!).)
Using a regular audio interface like a UR22 or similar is quite impractical if I need to work while riding a train or waiting in a café or similar, so a solution with a much smaller footprint would be very welcome - after all, basic audio output is all that is needed. Where I live, the most accessible solution would be the FiiO KA11, which could be ordered from J.B.'s A. empire, but before I order this I would like to read about your experiences.
The priority list of the desired device is as follows:
Any audio output at all
Clear sound (no scratching or other unwanted noise, some barely audible background noise while no sound is playing is acceptable)
Steady playback (no stuttering)
Reliability and longevity
Low latency
Flat frequency response
(It should be noted that 5. comes long after 4., and 6. comes even much longer after 5.)
Have you tried FlexASIO yet? I would maybe give that a shot before looking at different dongles.
There are plenty of other dongles by reputable manufacturers though, including other models by FiiO, Questyle, Moondrop, A&K, etc. I’d have to look and see which of those provide their own ASIO drivers though, as I would assume most would just be plug-n-play at those price points.
Thanks for the advice! I checked out FlexASIO as you suggested, and it works pretty well for everything except my present dongle. Plus, FlexASIO itself does not come with a GUI to adjust its settings, instead, the latter have to be accessed via an additional GUI (which I do not know how to install; GitHub may be great, but accessible guidance regarding the use of the offered tools by non-programmers is not always guaranteed) or by tinkering with a text file, so I didn’t check if there was an opportunity to directly address the dongle within the driver. ASIO4ALL is more user friendly in this regard.
After all, it seems that my present budget DAC and either my Surface Pro or Windows just don’t like each other - on my Android phone and my iPad the dongle works absolutely fine. Anyway, I now ordered the FiiO and will report about its functionality once I have been able to test it. I looked into the other DACs you suggested, but they are all way more expensive than the FiiO KA11, which makes them super oversized for the intended use case.
Thanks! I wonder why I couldn’t get there via the links in the original FlexASIO directory. The GUI is mentioned and linked, but it doesn’t take me to the .exe file.
I don’t know what your attitude is towards Aliexpress, but I buy a large amount of electronic gear and componentry from them, and it always arrives, despite people’s rather disparaging views that you will hear. Do a search for ‘small usb dac’ and you will be flooded with hundreds of results. As to ASIO support, I cannot comment. Almost all DACs are produced in Shenzen ultimately, so given that Aliexpress is simply a portal for thousands of manufacturers there, that is why you will hundreds there.
I have indeed read about the Tempotec, but I haven’t put it on the shortlist yet, mainly because of reservations towards certain platforms, just as you presumed. (To be honest, a small part of those reservations is my unwillingness to set up an account on just another vendor platform. After all, other than I had thought the FiiO could be ordered from the company’s local subsidiary - which happens to be seated rather close to where I live - directly without setting up an account.)
The main unique selling point of the Tempotec is the explicit advertisement of the ASIO driver for Windows, though, so I might indeed give it a shot if the FiiO disappoints. (Although I don’t need a balanced 4.4mm headphone jack at all and it always feels awkward for me to run around with tech I don’t use. For the same reason I returned the Surface Laptop Studio 2 and decided to wait for the next generation, because I do desire 32GB of RAM, but I don’t want a dedicated GPU in my laptop.)
Hi @klavierpunk,
you could also try with the relatively new Steinberg Built-in ASIO Driver, you can download it from here.
It’s the successor to the Generic Low Latency ASIO Driver.
It uses the new, modern WASAPI interface of the Windows OS and does even sample rate conversion automagically, if need be.
Wow, this is great! Coincidentally, I was already thinking about suggesting allowing Dorico playback via WASAPI (as an option beside ASIO) as a feature request, but this is even better - and it works like a breeze with Bluetooth, which is fantastic!
It didn’t persuade my current couple of Windows and my budget DAC to overcome their differences, though, but it seems that this is their business, so I’ll have that stubborn dongle play only with Android and iPadOS from now on if it doesn’t get along with Windows. Anyway, I will test the FiiO (which will arrive soon) with a selection of ASIO drivers - including this one - and check on the latencies. I am very curious about the results.
Ok, two weeks with the FiiO KA11 now and there’s quite some newly gained wisdom:
First impression of the FiiO was bad. Way too loud, hard to adjust and the most frustrating part: The FiiO ASIO driver doesn’t work at all. Trying to select it in Dorico or my preferred DAW generates either an error or reverts the selection back to where it came from. Decided to return it.
Procrastination does have its benefits though. Return deadline would have been today, so yesterday I decided to give it another try. The FiiO ASIO is still not working and neither is the firmware update application. But: Once one gets used to the higher output of this unit compared to cheap standard dongles, the sound pays off - especially when playing over headphones with higher impedance than the usual 16 to 32Ω! It works flawlessly with Steinberg’s built-in ASIO driver and ASIO4ALL.
In the meantime I read something about Intel Smart Sound Technology for USB Audio causing trouble in some cases, and it turned out that mine was one of them. Disabling this in the device manager did the trick, now even my older 10 bucks dongle works without any issues on my Surface Pro 9. So I took my time to compare those two units directly in Dorico, my preferred DAW and by listening to high-res audio and decided to keep the FiiO, which sounds just so damn good.
So, long story short: For any Windows user experiencing problems with a USB-C to audio jack dongle, checking if Intel’s code interferes with the preferred device should be the first box to tick.
It seems like AkLIAM devices from AliExpress offer dedicated ASIO drivers. In the description section of products like the PD5 or PD6 they provide download links for ASIO drivers.
Inside these drivers there are 3 files that have ASIO in their name: ctasio.dat, ctasio.dll and ctasio64.dll.
I tried to install their drivers to see if it will be available in my audio devices list in my DAW but the installation requires that I plug the device so I was not able to complete the installation. I’ll purchase one of these devices and let’s hope for the best.
I would recommend the Apogee Groove from Apogee Digital.
It is designed for mobile music production. Has Apogee written ASIO drivers and can drive Sennheiser HD600 headphones.
The only type of ‘headphones’ that are not recommended are IEMs with balanced-armeture drivers. If the IEMs have standard drivers, then it is not an issue.
I have one Etymoic that has balanced-armeture drivers and another that doesn’t. So, if using with an IEM, I use the Studios with standard drivers.
It works great, has a volume control and can drive pretty much any studio quality headphones.